It is the time of year when the weather makes a pie seem even more appealing than normal. When your hands start to get cold what could be better than a warm pie to hold? As the snow has been falling I decided to craft myself a 'snow pie' whilst I was waiting for my real pie to cook in the oven. If the cold weather has inspired you to grab a pie then do let us know with the hashtag #coldhandswarmpies.

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The Kandy Bar Bakery from Saltcoats have done it again! They have been crowed World Scotch Pie Champion for the second time, having previously taken the crown in 2014 when we were part of the Scotch Pie Club judging team. They retake the title from Murrays Bakers in Perth who were the 2015 winners. Given that the second placed pie was Beth Browning's Bakery in Kilwinning, it really is about time the Pierateers made a trip to Ayrshire. The vegetarian and fish savoury categories have been dropped this year in favour of the classic Haggis savoury which we are pleased to say was won by a haggis pie, as were all the categories where pies were against other products (which we are happy about at Pierate). Brownings the Bakers again won in the steak pie category with their famous 'Killie Pie' which we reviewed back in 2014. The full list of winners in below.

If you want to find out more about Scotch Pies, see our article on 'What Makes the Best Scotch Pie?'.

Category	Winner	Location
Scotch Pie	The Kandy Bar	Saltcoats
Steak Pie (hand held)	Brownings the Bakers	Kilmarnock
Apple Pie	Boghall Butchers	Bathgate
Football Pie	Bruce of the Broch	Fraserburgh
Hot Savoury	Nevis Baker (for Steak & Black Pudding Pie)	Fort William
Cold Savoury	Ballards Buctchers (for Poachers Pie)	Dumfries
Haggis Savoury	Foston Fine Meats (for Steak, Haggis & Drambuie Pie)	Berwickshire
Bridie	W.F. Stark	Buckhaven
Sausage Roll	Thomas Johnston	Falkirk

SJL

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Millwall Football Pie Review - Steak and Ale from The Pie Factory

When it comes to football, there can't be a more famous cup competition than the FA Cup. The history, the legend... but also plenty of cupsets! So with the infamous third round ties about to get underway, we rate the pie we had in Round 2 as Wycombe caused a shock at The Den against higher ranked Millwall with a stoppage-time winner! Would the pie rate highly or upset the fans in the stands?



The Pie Factory Steak and Ale

The pies in question were marketed as by ‘The Pie Factory’ which was a company we had previously come across at Northampton FC. Having rated the Steak and Ale pie while watching the Cobblers, Pierateers RAS and SJL were intrigued by the option of the meat and potato pie on offer - alongside the steak and ale and chicken Balti pies we were told were on sale. It therefore came as a surprise to both of us then when we got to our seats that what we actually got served was the Steak and Ale, as there weren't any meat and potato there (we just weren't told this!)

It was a shame this therefore wasn't a new flavour to add to the Pieremiership table, however we were pleased that after a few bites it was clear that the pie was a lot better quality than the version we had at the Sixfields Stadium. Once again the pies certainly looked good - golden brown in colour with a nice, crisp flaky pastry on top, but this time we weren't so disappointed with the filling. Sure, we wouldn't go as far as saying it would challenge at the top of the Pieremiership, but it was good to see that they were selling a much improved pie at the Den than they had at Northampton. It really highlighted to us what difference it makes when a pie is more thoroughly cooked and not dried out at a football ground, as I think the need for speed of service can often hinder the perfect pie being sold in football grounds up and down the country.

If anything, the pie at Millwall was probably a little too cooked, which made the pastry rather crunchy and flakes immediately fell off upon biting into it. However the extra baking meant the pie held together quite well, as nothing's worse than a football pie which collapses in on itself and falls apart, getting gravy all down your football shirt! Sure it still did break up a bit, but nowhere near as badly as some football pies we've had! It tasted decent too, due to the quite well filled capacity, with a decent amount of steak and soft, tender meaty chunks. There was still quite a lot of gravy though to bulk it out, which was a reasonably sour taste from the ale but a reasonable flavour.

At £3.40 this is on the more expensive end for a mass produced football pie, which reduces the cheapness score but certainly after some of the football pies we've eaten recently, it made a change to have a football pie I would be happy to eat again!



The Pie Factory Steak and Ale

Condition – 4 out of 7 - Looked pretty appealing, nice and tall. Particularly crisp, golden lid. Held together quite well.
Colour – 4 out of 7 – Quite golden on top but sides paler, a bit matt rather than glossy.
Cheapness – 3 out of 7 – £3.40 is quite a bit above average for a football league pie - especially one that's mass produced - and despite being decent meat content for a football pie, in the grand scheme of things this still didn’t feel like great value.
Capacity – 4.5 out of 7 – Quite tall and big capacity but still a reasonable airgap at the top. Whilst it looked like it would be satisfying, overall there was an air of disappointment. I would prefer a smaller pie without the airgap. Still, above average for a football pie!
Chewiness – 4.5 out of 7 – Pastry was a lot crisper and more enjoyable than before. Not much chewiness to the meat.
Content – 4.50 out of 7 - It was nice that the ale was noticeable but was a little too sour. The meat that was there was nice enough but still a bit too much of a gravy pie top marks!
Consistency – 4.50 out of 7 – Much improved on the Pie Factory pie previously eaten. A lot more meat and far better pastry, more cooked.


Steak and Ale (Millwall FC/The Pie Factory)
4.14/7
SJL/RAS

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Buzzfeed called upon the Pierateers to find out who sells the top rated football pies in the Birmingham area! The top social news website called upon our ex-pie-tise to advise on football pies, following our appearance on the BBC Sport website in their video on pies related to the Price of Football Survey and recent appearance on Rip Off Britain!

We Rated The West Midlands’ Football Match Pies

Pierateer Rob on BBC's Rip Off Britain

For the Buzzfeed article we were sent to try the pies at the 5 Birmingham based football clubs - Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Walsall, West Brom and Wolverhampton. While only three of them made the final cut, find out who we rated the best in the Birmingham Pie League by viewing the article!

While we are first and foremost a pie rating website, rather than specifically a football pie rating website, we’re looking to delve further into the provision of football pies as we develop our Pieremiership of football’s best half time pies. Find out if we've rated your club yet by clicking here!

We've rated over 500 pies, including a number of football pies

In our view, it’s all about a great tasting pie – filling and pastry - which is value for money. You can find out more about what makes a great rated pie by reading about the 7 Cs of pie rating. And to find out what makes a great football pie, you can also view our article on football pies when we advised BBC's Rip Off Britain earlier this year.

RAS

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Konditor & Cook - Mince Pie Review
[Colour 6, Condition 5.5, Cheapness 2.5, Capacity 4.5, Chewiness 5.75, Content 6, Consistency 5.5]

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The BBC have once again called upon the Pierateers to find out what makes a great pie! The team from BBC's Rip Off Britain called upon our ex-pie-tise to advise on football pies, following our TV debut on Great British Bake Off: An Extra Slice and appearing on the BBC Sport website in their video on pies related to the Price of Football Survey.

Pierateer Rob on BBC's Rip Off Britain

Pierateer Rob - who was the chosen pie expert for the show - is seen talking about the quality of British football pies and whether they really are a rip off or not. For the eager pie-d among you, you'll know that the clip on Rip Off Britain this lunchtime was actually the same footage as back in April, but it's clearly a big talking point as it's been shown once again!

In the clip (which can be view on BBC Pie-player for the next month and features us in the pie story from minute 18 to minute 26 and Pierateer Rob specifically in minute 22), Bradford City fan Kevin was questioning the quality and price of the pies at his local football club. Like us, Kevin thinks a half time pie is part and parcel of football culture in Britain. When you think football, you think half time pie. What better during those cold, winter evenings to warm the heart, as well as the hands, during the half time interval as you watch your local team? But is that actually what people do? Or has the quality and price of football pies put off the regular football fan? Do the caterers even have enough pies to go round? And if fans do buy a pie, is it piefection or are football fans being held to ransom? Find out in the episode!

We at www.pierate.co.uk will readily admit we are first and foremost a pie rating website, rather than specifically a football pie rating website, but we’re looking to delve further into the provision of football pies as we develop our Pieremiership of football’s best half time pies.

We've rated over 500 pies, including a number of football pies

But while we realise we haven’t eaten anywhere near enough pies in different football grounds yet – despite having over 500 pies rated in our Pie Rankings from many of the regular football pie manufacturers like Pukka Pies, Holland’s Pies and Peter’s Pies – we have always been a fan of eating a golden pastry product in the football stadiums we’ve visited. And in our minds what’s more important than simply the price of the pie is how the pie rates. Is it a soggy disappointment, overly dry or lacking in content or does it meet the 7 criteria we Pierateers look for in a pie?

In our view, it’s all about a great tasting pie – filling and pastry - which is value for money. You can find out more about what makes a great rated pie by reading about the 7 Cs of pie rating. However what makes a great football pie?

Here are a few specific pointers for making the perfect football pie:

Firstly, it’s got to be cooked properly. Sadly, in the rush to serve so many customers in such a short space of time, food at football grounds can be undercooked or left sat in a hot locker for far too long, making the pie taste bad or even be pretty much inedible. We have unfortunately fallen foul to a few pies being served to us either undercooked or over baked. Naturally, the rating of such pies is badly affected.

Secondly, the football pie has got to be something you can pick up in your hands and bite into, without it crumbling all over the place. Quite a few football pies can be too soft to pick up or crumble all over the place when bitten into, so a firm but crisp pastry casing is key.

Finally, the consistency of the pie filling has got to be just right. Naturally we want a meat pie to be filled to capacity with nice, tender meaty chunks, but we also expect the viscosity of the gravy or sauce to be well thought through so that it is flavoursome but not too runny, as the last thing you want is gravy down your football shirt!

Morecambe FC won the British Pie Awards in 2012 and 2014!

All this has got to be provided at a reasonable price that leaves the fan going away happy and without a huge dent in the wallet, otherwise it's certainly a rip-off!

In summary, we think there’s nothing better than a warm, hearty pie to get you through half time. But the key thing is that they have got to be top rated pies! Too often the pies are not only overly expensive but are just not up to scratch, either too dry or undercooked. So as well as checking out the price of pies, we’ll be making sure we rate as many as possible on our 7 Cs of pie rating so that you know what pies to purchase and don't get ripped off!

RAS

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We Pierateers of pie review website www.pierate.co.uk are today celebrating our 6th Birthday, and we'd love you to join us by simply eating a pie and rating it!

It follows in the footsteps of the very first International Pierate Day in 2013, which was once again celebrated last year. But we don’t want you – pie lovers worldwide – to just sit at home and watch as we eat all the pies! Oh no! Pie eating and pie rating is something we can all enjoy. Something that can bring friends, family and communities together. Pies are celebrated and eaten in so many countries worldwide and so today – marking our sixth birthday – we would love you to join us in eating and rating pies!

And to celebrate the occasion of our 6th birthday, we commissioned fellow food blogger and amazing illustrator Emily from www.recipesandreviews.co.uk to create us this lovely, personalised print - an illustrated guide on how to rate a pie, based on our 7 Cs of pie rating!



An illustrated guide on how to rate a pie by @emily_etc

So here’s the deal... in six simple words: Eat a pie and rate it!

It doesn’t matter whether it’s savoury or sweet, or whether you prefer your pies without the wheat or meat! We really do rate anything and everything that is a true pie and sometimes a number of interesting things that try to be pies to! But the important thing is we love to eat pie and rate it – for we are, after all, the Pierateers!

So once you’ve found a pie to eat – whether in the local bakery, butchers, supermarket or your favourite pie shop or one you have made in the luxury of your own home – why not rate your pie using the Seven Cs of pie rating in our lovely illustrated guide above?

So what do you need to do now?

Well, first things first - you need a pie (or two!) For insPIEration you might find our Pie Rankings helpful, with over 500 pies we've rated and reviewed over the past 6 years! Or perhaps you want to make one of the pies our Ship's Cook has made, following her reci-pies here.

You can even watch us on the BBC website advising what to look for in a pie!

Most of all, we hope you enjoy eating and rating pies today! We sure will!!!

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Currently on sale at £2.79, these pies are certainly not at the cheap end of the spectrum. It's certainly larger than your average Mr Kipling apple pie, but at £1.40 per pie, you'd expect a sizeable pie for your money. I'm not quite sure the size of this pie matches up with its price tag - so I'm hoping this pie makes up it for when I taste it.

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Out of the oven, the pie is a lovely golden brown colour. There's no boil-out, unlike its top-crust counterpart, so the pie is in good condition.


Cracking open the pie, however, reveals that it is lacking in real structural integrity. Despite picking a sharp knife, cutting this pie open for the cross-section means it just collapses on itself, oozing its red wine gravy out over the plate. It's therefore hard to fully ascertain the extent of the air-gap in this pie, but I could still see that this pie was not entirely filled to capacity.


The content was tasty - the gravy in particular was delicious and rich, and the meat was nice and tender. I could have done with a bit more steak in the pie, however.

At £2, this is a decent price for what was a quality pie. It's by no means the cheapest supermarket pie, however, but you could do worse.

While this pie may have collapsed when I tried to cut it (meaning it would be hard to pick up and eat with your hands), you can still clearly see it is vastly superior to it's lesser top-crust cousin. Fully-encased is always the way to go. Case closed.

Steak, Mushroom & Red Wine Pie
Score: 5.4 / 7
TJP

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Piglets Pantry Steak, Chicken and Vegetarian Pie Reviews



Piglets Pantry Football Pie Reviews

We were delighted to be offered the chance by Stephen Miller (Food and Beverage Operations Manager) to head to Stadium mk to sample some of their pies, which included the Steak and Concrete Cow Ale pie which has been exclusively produced for MK Dons. This – as I found out talking to Jo Hunter from Piglets Pantry, who kindly came up from the south coast to meet us and talk us through the pies – was one of many things that help Piglets Pantry stand out from the crowd. They regularly talk to the clubs/businesses they supply and the supporters who are buying the pies to get their feedback and aid them in developing new products.

For me, this is one of the distinct advantages of having a small, personable pie business supplying the pies in a football ground, as opposed to the more homogenised mass producers sold within many UK stadiums. You get pies that the local fan base can connect with, support and recommend. Indeed, the Steak and Concrete Cow Ale Pie had been developed with a group of MK Dons supporters and using a local ale, a personal touch that seemed to be going down well with the fans there!

Sales of Piglets Pantry pies at their local football club, Brighton and Hove Albion, seem to back this up. Since taking over the pie supplying their ground sales have rocketed from 1,500 to 10,000 pies a match, which is quite phenomenal! It certainly shows that if the quality pies are there, people will pay a bit more for a premium product. It’s therefore no surprise to see the pies being sold in more grounds, including hospitality at Chelsea and West Brom, plus recently in Twickenham and the Millennium Stadium for their Rugby World Cup fixtures.

Back to MK Dons and the pies to rate were the Steak and Concrete Cow Ale Pie, the Chicken, Gammon and Leek Pie and the Spinach, Mushroom and Ricotta Pie. They also had a special on that game – the Chicken Balti Pie – which Pierateer Sam has his eye on when he visits, as our resident Chicken Balti football pie expert! I was impressed with this range of pies available to home and away fans, with MK Dons putting on a special pie for away fans dependant on where they were from. It’s one of the few clubs I’ve found where they are actively looking out for the needs of their fans, rather than just giving a very generic catering experience to all.

Onto the pies and my overall thoughts are that these are premium pies being sold at a very reasonable price, especially for a football ground, at just £3.50. The pastry is shortcrust around the sides and base, with a puff pastry lid. It is noted that these pies do not contain lard or suet, giving them a paler colour but also a lighter, crisper pastry. This means the pastry is less moist and can hold the filling in thinner, crisper pastry. While this different pastry did take a little getting used to, having primarily eaten and enjoyed butter-rich pastry which is more golden and softer, I enjoyed the firmer crunch this pastry had and it did feel a lot lighter and less stodgy as a result. The main downside was the outer rim of overhang pastry which was a bit too dry, but the rest of the pastry when eaten with the filling was well balanced.

All the pies held together brilliantly when eaten by hand, with generally a great consistency to the fillings, which is ideal for a football pie. The capacity was very strong in all of them, with the meat pies particularly standing out against most other football pies in terms of the strong meaty content and packed filling.



Piglets Pantry Chicken, Gammon and Leak Pie Review

Chicken, Gammon and Leak
First up to rate was the Chicken, Gammon and Leak which is a regular on the menu at MK Dons. The pie was packed with a nice blend of chicken and gammon in a light béchamel sauce, spread well throughout the pie filling. The chicken was lovely and tender, the gammon not too chewy and the leak complemented the flavour well with the white sauce. The consistency of the filling was good for a hand held pie and balanced the crisp pastry well. Overall a top quality filling and while the rim, side and base pastry was a little too dry and crisp for my liking, I’m sure many would love this pastry and it well deserving of Pierate Highly Recommended status.

Piglets Pantry Chicken, Gammon and Leek Pie
Score: 6.11/7
[Colour 5.75, Capacity 6.25, Consistency 6, Condition 6.5, Chewiness 6, Cheapness 5.75, Content 6.5]


Steak and Concrete Cow Ale
There’s no denying we love a good steak pie on the Pierate Ship, so it has to be a top, top flavour to challenge for the top spots in our pie rankings. We very much appreciated the lengths Piglets Pantry had gone to in order to create this pie with a local ale to the MK Dons, creating this pie exclusively for the team after meeting with local fans on a taster day. The meat was good quality and the gravy had a good viscosity to it for a football pie. Another good pie but we felt it didn’t quite match the Chicken pie in terms of the mix of flavours. No doubt it would however still be very popular amongst the steak pie fans at the game!

Piglets Pantry Steak and Concrete Cow Ale Pie
Score: 5.96/7
[Colour 5.75, Capacity 6, Consistency 6, Condition 6.5, Chewiness 5.75, Cheapness 5.75, Content 6]


Spinach, Mushroom and Ricotta Pie
It’s worth saying from the start that this was one of the best vegetarian pies I’ve had! I’m never normally one to go for the vegetarian option if there is a meat alternative (especially if they are sold at the same price), but this Spinach, Mushroom and Ricotta pie had such a rich flavour, with a delicious light runny cheese sauce and complementary spinach and mushroom content that I didn’t really miss the meat! In fact my friend Martyn was tempted to convert to veggie pies after eating this one! The filling was nicely balanced and while the consistency of the sauce was a little too runny to easily eat with your hands, it complemented the pastry well. This pie was second in the Vegetarian pie category of the British Pie Awards 2015 and you could easily see why!

Piglets Pantry Spinach, Mushroom and Ricotta Pie
Score: 6.04/7
[Colour 5.75, Capacity 6.25, Consistency 5.75, Condition 6.5, Chewiness 6.25, Cheapness 5.5, Content 6.25]


Overall then a great selection of football pies at MK Dons, with one of the best vegetarian pies we’ve rated to boot! It means Piglets Pantry have achieved what only two other clubs have – a Pierate Highly Recommended football pie – and puts them comfortably into third place in the PIEremiership. My thanks once again to Stephen and Jo for their hos-pie-tality at the game and, of course, the very good pies. We look forward to trying some more of the Piglets Pantry range soon!

RAS

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Waitrose even know that the top crust pie is the inferior product to the fully-encased pie - that's surely why they've put it in the name, so you can avoid disappointment later!


Out of the oven, the pie does look fairly nice. It has attained a nice golden brown complexion, and the puff pastry has lived up to its name. However it is let down by the boil out on the left hand side of the pie. Boil out, of course, that's resulted from this being just a top-crust pie. If this pie had the correct infrastructure (sides and a base), there wouldn't be gravy dribbling down the outside of the casing.

Now, onto the next problem with a top crust pie. How do you eat this thing?


Lifting the lid on this pie reveals long strands of flabby pastry trailing off the lid and flopping around in the gravy soup below. Clearly this isn't the effect Waitrose are going for with this pie, but what other option do I have to get this pie out of the foil tin? Unless I'm meant to eat the pie in the foil? That can't be right, surely?


Okay, so I've got the pie out of its foil bath tub, and now its swimming around on my plate, topped off with a raft of pastry. I hope you can see now why the top crust pie is inferior - I might as well have just had a stew!

The filling itself tastes very nice. The gravy has a very smooth consistency (some might say 'velvety'), with a fine taste of Fullers ale, and the pastry at least tastes nice and buttery, even if it doesn't go all the way round. Together, it's a nice combination of flavours, and the meat is not chewy (which is always a good thing). Cost-wise, £2.99 is at the upper scale of a supermarket pie - especially an own brand, 1 person portion - so unfortunately it will lose a few points there.

Although you could taste the quality in the filling, overall this pie was not a great experience for me and I personally couldn't recommend it.

Waitrose Aberdeen Angus Steak & Ale Top Crust Pie
Score: 3.5/7
TJP

Hungry for more? View all of our Waitrose Pie Reviews!

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